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Wasted

A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia

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Wasted

By: Marya Hornbacher
Narrated by: Marya Hornbacher
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About this listen

 Precociously intelligent, imaginative, energetic, and ambitious, Marya Hornbacher grew up in a comfortable middle-class American home. At the age of five, she returned home from ballet class one day, put on a enormous sweater, curled up on her bed, and cried--because she thought she was fat. By age nine she was secretly bulimic, throwing up at home after school, while watching Brady Bunch reruns on television and munching Fritos. She added anorexia to her repetoire a few years later and took great pride in her ability to starve.

Marya's story gathers intensity with each passing year. By the time she is in college and working for a wire news service in Washington, D.C., she is in the grip of a bout of anorexia so horrifying that it will forever put to rest the romance of wasting away. Down to fifty-two pounds and counting, Marya becomes a battlefield: her powerful death instinct at war with the will to live.

Why would a talented young girl go through the looking glass and step into a netherworld where up is down, food is greed, and death is honor? Why enter into a love affair with hunger, drugs, sex, and death? Marya sustained both anorexia and bulimia through five lengthy hospitalizations, endless therapy, the loss of family, friends, jobs, and, ultimately, any sense of what it means to be "normal." In this vivid, emotionally wrenching memoir, she recreates the experience and illuminates the tangle of personal, family and cultural causes unlying eating disorders.

Wasted is the story of one woman's travels to the darker side of reality, and her decision to find her way back again--on her own terms.©1998 Marya Hornbacher; (P)1998 Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio Publishing, A Division of Random House, Inc. Eating Disorders Hygiene & Healthy Living Mental Health Personal Development Psychology & Mental Health Memoir Inspiring Health Eating Disorder Memoirs
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Most relevant
As the father of a child with an eating disorder this was both disturbing and compulsive reading.

Hypnotic and haunting

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This book is legend of course and for good reason it's beautifully written and gives fantastic insight into the writers mind and eating disorder. However the writer is so bright that combined with her unique writing style this book is harder to read than most. Not an easy listen but well worth the effort thanks

Brilliant but hard to read

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It's pretty quick and ruthlessly honest. I like listening to audiobooks read by the author themselves, it makes Wasted particularly raw.

a harrowing tale.

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A well written book that gives insight into the mind of an addict. Sad and thought provoking.

Haunting

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By the end I wanted to listen to more. Some of the story shocked me though the poetic writing of the scenes are beautiful. It did take a few chapters to draw me in. This true story is quite sad.

Fascinating, sad and shocking.

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I can't believe the author was only 23 when she penned this book. So powerful and riveting. I loved it.

Beautifully well-written

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A bit triggering but really well written and overall good story, I recommend this book

Loved it

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I couldnt get through 1 chapter of this without off. the worst audio I've ever heard. who do I contact for a refund?

audio is shocking

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Indulgent and monotonous. Ended up not caring whether the wasted away or not. Dull reading

Indulgent and monotonous

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